


snow in september

by eggplantemily



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Angst, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, Love Triangles, Pining, Summer, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7285735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggplantemily/pseuds/eggplantemily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>lucas and maya have 93 days of summer, they spend most of it together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	snow in september

**Author's Note:**

> this is the longest fic ive ever written it took forever be nice
> 
> title from summer love by one direction lol

 

**93.** maya, lucas, farkle, riley and zay walk out of their middle school together. they have left their legacy. they have made their mark. their reign as kings has ended. they have bigger things ahead. but for now, they have summer.   
  
their school ends may 31st and starts again september 1st. they have 93 days. they spend what's left of may 31st on riley's roof in red gowns with their parents and each other.   
  
around 11 the parents decide it's time to call it a night. katy had already left, needing to work a late shift at topanga's to afford rent this month, making maya walk home alone. lucas, of course, was not going to let that happen.   
  
"maya! wait up!" lucas shouts at her in the stairwell. he runs to catch up to her. he thinks in the back of his mind he'd follow her anywhere.   
  
"hey huckleberry." she says once they're stepping in time together.   
  
lucas giggles, "hey."   
  
"you don't have to walk me home, i'm a big girl. i can fight." maya protests.  
  
"oh, i know." lucas jokes. "but we only live two blocks away from each other, and if a robber tries to take my purse i know you'll fight him off."  
  
"i'm not your body guard, heehaw." maya sasses. lucas nods. she's not his at all.  
  
"you're really stubborn, y'know that?" he nudges her arm.  
  
maya scoffs. "pft. no i'm not." she says out of spite, to piss lucas off. to prove his point. they walk side by side, hands brushing against each other, for a few, silent minutes. maya's mind is racing a million miles a minute. lucas can read her like a book.   
  
"high school won't change anything, maya." he speaks up, hoping his message gets across.   
  
"i know." she says quietly. "doesn't mean it stops getting scary." lucas nods.   
  
when they get to maya's building lucas follows her all the way to her door, against maya's refusal.   
  
maya realises very quickly that she doesn't know where her keys are. "shit." she says, frantically searching her pockets. "damnit!" she pulls on the doorknob, only to have it remain closed. lucas just watches her and smiles. this is a shitty situation, but there's no place he'd rather be. maya groans. "god. i guess i gotta go to riley's for the night." she says as she turns goes on her way back onto the streets of new york city.   
  
"alright, let's go." lucas agrees, ready to walk another half mile back to riley's.  
  
"no, huckleberry. you go home, you're 10 minutes from your house, i'm not gonna make you walk 30 minutes back to riley's." maya insists.  
  
"maya. you can let me walk you to riley's or you can stay at my house." lucas says. he was not taking a chance with her getting hurt.   
  
maya groans. "alright fine." she turns in the direction of lucas's house. lucas walks behind her without talking about it. maya texts katy telling her she's staying at lucas's place. lucas tells himself he's protective of maya because he's protective all of his friends. maya tells herself lucas is protective of her because he's protective of all of his friends. they don't talk about it.   
  
it's near midnight when they walk through lucas's front door. maya is halfway to lucas's room by the time he has the door shut, as if it was her own home. lucas catches up to her, "you on the bed, me on the floor." he says, normally, throwing a t-shirt and sweats from his drawer to her. she catches them with ease and goes to the bathroom to change.  
  
when she returns lucas has made his makeshift bed on the floor and climbs under the blanket. he looks so soft and it makes maya's heart clench. she climbs onto lucas's bed and makes herself comfortable.  
  
"goodnight, maya." lucas says, once the ruffling has stopped. he wishes he was next to her.  
  
"night, huckleberry." maya replies. she wishes she was next to him.  
  
maya clicks off the bedside lamp and the darkness settles in. their dreams are full of what might have been, what might never happen.

* * *

**79.** mid-june, the matthews take a vacation. maya spends the entire week with lucas.   
  
they walk around the city on the 14th. chelsea, greenwich village, even soho. they stop for ice cream on the way back home. lucas pays. neither of them talks about how much of a date it looks like. the cashier tells them they make a cute couple. maya's cheeks heat up. lucas smiles at the floor. and if they don't correct the cashier, no one has to know.   
  
they eat their ice cream outside the shop, the early summer sun beating down on their backs. they're sitting across from each other. the way lucas is looking at maya makes her believe the last two years wasn't one-sided. his eyes are shining, yet it seems maya is the sun. they watch the sun set on the buildings above them. reflecting off the glass, it makes the buildings look ablaze.   
  
maya looks over to lucas, his skin is gold. she makes a point to bring her sketchbook and pencils with her next time she comes here.   
  
lucas looks at maya, she's looking at the mile-high buildings standing around her, the sun is shining on her face. she's glowing. he thinks she's beautiful, of course he does, he always has. he doesn't tell her, in fear of even further complication. but she looks back at him and he can tell she knows. she smiles. he smiles. lucas has 79 days to stare at maya like this. with the entire city is buzzing around them, they have a conversation in complete silence.  
  
ms. friar invites maya to dinner, which is nothing new. lucas says ms. friar loves maya more than she loves him. lucas can relate. lucas and maya sit next to each other at the table, almost too close for normal. maya's thigh is almost pressed against lucas's hip. for where their legs aren't touching, lucas makes up for it by setting his foot on top of hers. he acts as if it's an accident, but doesn't move it when maya notices.   
  
ms. friar drives maya home that night. maya thanks her and lucas walks her to her door. "goodnight, maya." he smiles. he smiles at her. this is the part of a date where the boy would kiss the girl in a rom-com. maya swears he's going to; so she turns away, opens her door and enters the safety of her home. she turns away, opens her door and leaves the safety of lucas. 

* * *

**65.** ice cream in the city becomes a weekly thing. maya brings her sketchbook and pencils every time. sometimes she draws the buildings. sometimes she draws the manhattan streets. she always draws beautiful things.  
  
on june 28th, she draws lucas. he’s watching the city turn gold. maya watches him turn gold with it. she begins drawing him without a word. his sharp jawline, his hero hair, the cityscape around him. “what’re you drawing today, ma’am?” lucas asks, deepening his texan accent just for her, while taking a bite of his rocky road cone.  
  
maya’s face heats up. “um, it’s uh- nothing.” she struggles. lucas, of course doesn’t accept this. he knows she gets insecure about her art.  
  
“c’mon, maya. you know i’ll love it, no matter what it is.” lucas encourages. neither of them are sure if he’s talking about just her art anymore.  
  
“you have to promise to not laugh.” maya says shyly, hugging her book to her chest.  
  
“maya, i would never. you-” he stops talking when maya turns her book around, showing lucas the outline of himself. lucas’s eyes light up the minute he sees it. he looks like he won the fucking nobel peace prize. “can i… can i keep this?” he asks, looking like he’s gonna cry. “once you’re done?”  
  
“uh… i actually want to keep it.” maya declines. they both know why, no one says anything about it. “um. i can make another one though.” she won’t look him in the eyes.  
  
“okay.” lucas agrees, smiling at her. if someone told him she hung the stars in the sky, he would believe it without question. maya tells him to go back to looking at the city so she can continue drawing the highlights and shadows in gold colours. he obeys and happily watches the buildings above him turn aflame again.  
  
maya turns lucas gold with the stroke of a pencil. lucas looks over at maya, her tongue is sticking out of her mouth in concentration, her hair is falling in her face. every time lucas looks at her, his heart clenches and he’s taken aback by how fucking beautiful she is. “stop looking at me.” maya tells him. he wants to spend forever looking at her golden hair, that even rapunzel would be jealous of. he wants to spend forever looking at her blue eyes, so blue you could swim in. he knows why. he turns away, looking back to the buildings. he doesn’t understand how just looking at her makes him feel the way it does. but it does, she does. he pushes the only explanation back into the depths of his brain.  
  
if he thinks about it, it makes it true.  
  
if he thinks about it, he hurts someone.

* * *

**64.** the next day is riley’s birthday. she has a party at her house with their group of five. cory and topanga make cake, and everyone brings gifts. except for maya. riley knows maya can’t always afford a birthday present for her every year, but that doesn’t mean maya doesn’t feel awful about it.  
  
she’s eating cake on the couch, watching everyone around her socialise. zay is talking to smackle, and maya swears it looks like he’s flirting with her. she turns away and forgets what she just saw. cory and topanga are in the kitchen talking about how they can’t believe it’s already june 29th again, and their daughter is fourteen. farkle is with riley. riley is babbling about something, probably about how much she loves birthdays, and farkle is just listening and looking at her the way he has since first grade. maya doesn’t understand why farkle doesn’t just admit that he is truly in love with her, and not in the way he’s been saying for 7 years. he’s in love with her in the way that is completely encompassing, captivating, terrifying. maya thinks she knows the feeling. she’s known forever that as much as farkle says he loves riley and herself equally, that it will never be that way. even if he does, his love for riley is different than it is for maya.  
  
she’s watching her best friends in love when lucas walks over and plops down right next to her. she ignores the fact that he chose to sit with their thighs pressed together even though the entire couch was empty. “hey.” lucas says quietly.  
  
“hey, huckleberry.” she answers, feeling nostalgia of new year's falling around them.  
  
there’s a pause while lucas thinks of something to talk about. “so… what did you get riley?” he asks, whispering because you never know when riley’s eavesdropping.  
  
maya’s cheeks heat up. “uh… i… money’s kind of short this year…” she trails off. lucas understands.  
  
“it’s okay.” he tells her. he puts a hand on the small of her back for comfort; and maybe something else too. maya’s skin is set on fire from his touch. lucas’s skin is frozen over from her touch. “i can put your name on my gift.”  
  
“i don’t need your charity.” she denies. lucas can see her walls closing him off.  
  
“maya.” all it takes is lucas saying her name so softly for her to be putty in his hands. “just accept help once in awhile. it doesn’t make you weak.” she is the strongest person he knows, and he’s seen people take down a horse. she nods as an acceptance.  
  
maya furrows her brow, “okay.” she says, being taken back to the day they were taking art class away. she noticed things were different that day.  
  
maya is looking at him, so confused. she doesn’t know how they got here. it’s been such a long two years. she spent two years trying to make him hate her. why didn’t it fucking work. it would be so much easier if he hated her. if he hated her, there would be no triangle. if he hated her, it would be lucas + riley. if he hated her, she could pretend her heart doesn’t beat faster when he walks in the room.  
  
when lucas meets her eyes, she feels warm inside. “you… um… you have cake on your face.” she tries her hardest not to smile, but when lucas goes cross-eyed looking for the cake, she can’t hold it in. she reaches out and wipes the frosting off his cheek, pausing when she realises how similar this is to what happened at the campfire in texas, with the roles reversed. “lucas…”  
  
before she can do anything stupid, topanga calls everyone to the table so riley can open presents. when riley gets to lucas and maya’s present, she asks who it’s from. maya and lucas look at each other for a second until lucas answers, “uh, it’s from me and maya.” maya nods nervously.  
  
riley furrows her brow in confusion, like she does when she realises something is going on; but she opens her present anyway. it’s a ring, with two states on it. it starts with texas, wraps around the finger and ends with new york, it's honestly amazing. riley looks like she’s gonna cry, which isn't much, she cried when she accidentally stepped on a bug. “it’s so beautiful, guys.” she chokes.  
  
“we… we both knew how much you loved texas, thought you could always have a reminder.” lucas says, maya thinks the last thing she needs is a reminder of texas. but maybe it’s also the first.  
  
“another ring! just like ours, peaches! i love it, thanks, guys.” riley smiles.  
  
riley hugs them both, squishing the two together; and once again maya’s skin is lit on fire and lucas’s skin ices over.  
  
they are dangerous. if one gets near the other, someone gets hurt.

* * *

**59.** july 4th they all stay at riley’s again. they watch the fireworks from her roof, lucas watches the colours bounce off of maya’s face. they watch the fireworks from riley’s roof, lucas watches the amazement in maya’s eyes. after the fireworks show they go back to the matthews’.  
  
cory, topanga and auggie go to bed and it’s the group of six again. they spread blankets out on the floor and couch. riley turns on netflix, they watch  _ clueless _ ; because all of the girls and zay wanted to watch it  _ and 4-2 haha losers. _ so they watch  _ clueless _ , the six of them, side by side, how it should always be. somehow it's lucas and maya next to each other, in the middle of their friends.  
  
20 minutes into the movie and riley is already asleep because  _ THE FIREWORKS STARTED AT TEN!? _  
  
by halfway farkle and smackle are out too, and it only takes a few minutes after that for zay to be snoring next to lucas.  
  
so it’s lucas and maya, alone. once again. they’re both on their backs, maya is trying to avoid him, because she knows what's happening and it needs to stop before someone gets fucking hurt. but when lucas turns over and his eyes are still shining, even in the darkness, she can't stay away from him. “what are you doing, huckleberry?” she whispers. she's so exhausted, but she blames it on the late hour.  
  
lucas doesn't know how to respond to her question. what is he doing? right now, he’s trying to look at maya hart. but what is he doing in the long run? he doesn't think he'll ever know. except he thinks he already does. “just facing you.” he replies eventually. he gently grabs her arm and she understands what he wants.  
  
she turns over to face him, “yes?” she says once blue has met green.  
  
“just wanted to see you.” he whispers, closing his eyes. maya lies there confused, while lucas falls asleep.

* * *

**58.** maya wakes up the next day before anyone else, at least she thought. she wakes up on her side, facing lucas, the way she fell asleep. she opens her eyes to tan skin too close to her face. she wakes up to a tan arm around her waist. she looks up to see lucas wrapped around her. she tries to weave out of his arms without waking him, but he’s already looking down at her, his eyes bright. she stops trying to move when he looks at her with a faint smile.  
  
they lie together, wrapped around each other, until smackle starts to stir next to riley.  
  
when everyone's breathing starts to speed up, maya gently pulls away, and lucas let’s her. he feels this isn’t the first this has happened.  
  
  
the matthews and their group drive to long beach this day. they had so many people that they were split up into two cars. the drive is over an hour out of the city, and maya didn’t get much sleep. so when she falls asleep on lucas’s shoulder, no one questions it. if lucas rests his cheek against the top of her head, no one has to know.  
  
they arrive at long beach before noon. although it was july 5th, it was the windiest day of the year. the sand is warm, the sun beating down on their skin, yet maya fucking freezing. she ends up sitting under a giant pile of towels, searching for any protection against the wind she could find. she watches lucas and riley cover zay in sand, she smiles sadly. this is how it should be, riley and lucas, the perfect team. the princess and mr. perfect. they’re like a summer rain. they’re so much alike. they belong together. she should’ve stayed quiet about lucas riding the bull. but at the same time, she would do it all again if it meant keeping lucas around.  
  
she’s drawn out of her thoughts by a shirtless lucas coming up to her. “why aren’t you out in the ocean or something?” he asks.  
  
“i’m literally freezing, lucas.” she says from her burrito of towels. lucas walks away to his beach bag and pulls out his texas a&m t-shirt and hoodie. he comes back and hands them to maya. “lucas, i don’t-”  
  
“it doesn’t make you weak, maya.” he tells her. maya’s face softens and she puts the clothes on. “now let’s go and build a sand castle or something.”  
  
“but your clothes.” maya protests.  
  
“a&m sucks anyway.” lucas shrugs, taking maya by the hand and running into the atlantic ocean. maya looks at their clasped hands, their tangled fingers and lets herself have a moment of selfishness. she looks at the golden boy in front of her, attached to her. this fucking cowboy has made her feel things she didn’t think existed. he’s unintentionally made her life heaven and hell at the same time. he unintentionally makes her heart swell and break at the same time. maya swears he can sense when her eyes are on him, because he stops running, turns around and looks in her eyes. “what?” he asks quietly, like they’re the only two people in the world.  
  
maya smiles, truly smiles. lucas’s throat closes up and he is overcome with a feeling that a rom-com would describe as love. when he thinks about it, he thinks maybe it’s true. “nothing.” maya says softly back, into their own little bubble. the look in her eyes makes lucas push aside his love crisis until later. he nods. maya looks at their intertwined hands. lucas looks at their intertwined hands. they run into the atlantic together, hands locked, hearts locked.

* * *

**48.** a midsummer carnival runs july 15th-18th. the group goes the first day. they eat funnel cake and ride all the rides. farkle absolutely obliterates lucas at basically every game they play, including the high striker. zay wins a giant stuffed puppy at the rope ladder game and gives it to riley, along with a goldish; which riley names ‘peaches.’ “i’m flattered, riles.” maya laughs.  
  
lucas wins a small prize at ring toss and chooses the squid hat. he takes no time putting it on maya’s head. she just looks up at him and rolls her eyes, doing an awful job at hiding her blush.  
  
maya will ride every single ride in the carnival, including the crazy ass reverse bungee one; except for the ferris wheel. so when the other five of the group decide they want to go on it, she waits at the bottom. lucas stands next to her while the others get in line. “i’m fine, lucas. you can go with them if you want.”  
  
“i’d rather stay down here.” he says simply. he’d rather stay down there. he’d rather stay with her.  
  
maya watches the ferris wheel light up in a rainbow of colours. lucas watches maya’s face light up in a rainbow of colours. he reaches out and grabs one of the tentacles of the squid hat and pulls maya closer to him. maya makes no protests and lets herself be drawn to lucas. sometimes she thinks they are opposite sides of a magnet, being drawn to each other against their wills. all this time she’s been trying to keep her distance from lucas, but every time he got to close to her she was drawn to his touch. if she kept her distance, his force wouldn’t affect her. if she kept her distance, she could pretend he didn’t matter to her. but one night in texas he was too close. he was too close to her. he was too close to that stupid bull. he was too close and she was drawn into his atmosphere and she was freezing and he was burning and she was scared. she was so, so scared. she’s still scared.  
  
she’s still scared as he pulls her closer and closer. she can almost feel his breath on her skin. she knows he wants her to look him in the eyes, she can’t. she watches his hand play with the tentacle of that stupid hat he won for her. it’s all getting too real and maya doesn’t know what to do with it. he takes his other hand and tilts maya’s chin up towards him. maya reluctantly meets lucas’s eyes. they have another one of their silent conversations. maya swears he’s saying what she thinks he is, but she doesn’t trust it enough to believe it. so she ignores it.  
  
the others get off the ride, riley is cheering about how much she loves the ferris wheel and farkle is watching her with the heartiest heart eyes maya has ever seen. zay decides he wants to do bumper cars so the six of them wander to the line. maya and lucas walk behind the rest, lucas puts his arm around maya’s shoulder. maya just lets it happen, because as selfish as it is, she likes it. she likes him. she more than likes him.  
  
“two to a car. i call zay!” riley shouts, because zay is a master at bumper cars.  
  
smackle, clearly upset, retorts. “fine! i’m with farkle!” and of course this leaves maya and lucas.  
  
“guess it’s you and me, huckleberry.” maya says, looking up to see lucas from where she’s tucked in his side.  
  
“you and me.” lucas confirms, with a faint smile and a sparkle in his eyes. maya wants this to last longer than just bumper cars.  
  
to no one’s surprise, zay and riley win bumper cars. maya says it’s because lucas is a bad driver. lucas says it’s because maya is a bad decision maker. oh the irony. riley piggybacks zay while they take their victory lap. lucas laughs and sneakily wraps his arm back around maya’s shoulder.  
  
they go to the teacup rides next. maya is tucked into lucas’s side so she doesn’t fly away in the momentum. riley is spinning their cup insanely fast and maya is just laughing with a steady hand on lucas’s bicep. the entire world is turning around them and they’re sitting still. they’re stuck in the same place, riley.maya.lucas. just like always. lucas is stopping her from leaving. just like always. she’d never try to leave anyway. just like always.

* * *

**41.** a week later, they go over to farkle’s house to swim. maya still cannot believe how huge farkle’s house is, you could fit 3 of her apartments into farkle’s bedroom. the minkus’s have a pool room across from the bowling alley, and it honestly makes maya hate him more.  
  
the minute they're in the humid room, riley yells “last one in's a rotten egg!” maya, of course takes this as a challenge. she runs into the pool fully clothed in her cover-up. everyone laughs, because this is maya. she’s competitive and reckless and completely insane, and she's the best person anyone could ever know. lucas just smiles at her like he’s in love. and maybe he is.  
  
soon after they were involved in a very intense game of marco polo, which involved maya and lucas  _ definitely  _ cheating. maya was on lucas’s back, that way if lucas was tagged, maya was still free. and if they both were tagged, they had four arms to tag the others; except they were never tagged, because they never said ‘polo’ when they were supposed to.  
  
marco polo turns into chicken fight, and maya is on lucas’s shoulders, riley is on zay’s, smackle is on farkle’s. smackle and farkle are absolutely  _ dominating _ . maya cannot let that happen, “all or nothing!” she declares. smackle, in her competitive glory, agrees. maya looks down at lucas and very seriously demands, “we have to win this, huckleberry. don’t you  _ dare _ let me fall.” lucas laughs, he can’t let her fall, yet he’s already fallen so far down, he doesn’t think he’ll ever come back up. he doesn’t mind.  
  
zay counts down and then they’re fighting, a tangle of wet skin and flailing arms. they’re pushing each other in a triangle shape because there’s 3 teams, and maya thinks the universe really does hate her. maya is shoving riley and she’s down, underwater, out of the running. riley was never great at causing others harm. then it’s lucas + maya, and it’s not a triangle anymore. maya is pushing smackle with all of her strength, but maya is small and smackle is not letting up. lucas takes matters into his own hands and gives farkle an unexpected nipple cripple and he was down, taking smackle with him. maya cheers with her arms raised in victory. “ref! did you see that!” farkle yells at zay angrily. “he titty twisted me! that’s a foul!”  
  
“i have no idea what you’re talking about.” lucas snubs, cheering with maya. he looks up at the girl on his shoulders, she’s smiling so brightly. you’d think she’d just won a gold medal in the olympics. he thinks with her so close to him, this prize is much better.  
  
“huckleberry, we won!” maya hails. she looks down at the boy holding her up, and he’s already smiling at her, his eyes crinkling at the sides. she grabs the sides of his face, and suddenly the world around them disappears. it’s lucas + maya, silent, in their own universe. they have another one of their silent conversations, lucas tells her how he feels. he thinks she understands because her smile grows, and the look in her eyes softens. her hair is stuck to her forehead, she has mascara running down her face, but the way she’s looking at him is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. he thinks this must be love.  
  
maya hops off lucas’s back, and zay, as the ref, starts to announce the winners, as if it actually  _ were _ the olympics. “i, isaiah hank babineaux, on july 22nd, 2015, formally announce maya penelope hart and lucas …. whatever your middle name is …. friar, our winners!” riley basically screams at the top of her lungs, applauding maya’s victory. smackle and farkle are still mad, but clap anyway, because really, they deserved to win that. even if they did cheat. and farkle’s nipple still hurt. lucas takes maya’s hand, making maya pull back as a reflex because there are people there and they’re not alone. her panic doesn’t last long, as she realised he was just taking their bows.  
  
“zay, you know my middle name.” lucas laughs after their bow. zay insists he doesn’t. “yes you do? it’s-” lucas looks to see maya looking at him with wide, questioning eyes. he decides she doesn’t need to know. “uh, so the weather is great today.”  
  
“no no no. what’s your middle name, huckleberry? your friends can’t just know your middle name!” she flutters her eyelashes at him.  
  
fuck it. lucas sighs, “rick.”  
  
maya’s entire face lights up and her jaw drops. “no. this…. this is not really happening.” she laughs. she starts jumping up and down in excitement. “you’re a real ranger rick! this is the greatest day of my life. i will never be happier than i am in this minute.” lucas just watches her and smiles fondly. he mentally thanks his parents for naming him that, just so he can see her like this.  
  
he’d walk through fire to make her happy, he feels like maybe he has. he feels like maybe they both have. they’re both exhausted, burned and bruised. he thinks maybe that’s what love takes.

* * *

**30.** on august 2nd lucas and maya are in central park. maya is drawing the contrast between the trees and the buildings, lucas is watching. he's fascinated. by it. by her. what starts off as faint pencil marks turn into a new view of new york city. it’s ice cream day and they decided on getting it in the park instead of from their usual shop. lucas didn't mind, he’s been in new york for two years and he’s only been to central park a handful of times.  
  
the park is too far to walk, so they took the subway. it was crowded, tourists all heading to the park, so lucas and maya were squished together. it was nothing new at this point, they’d basically spent all summer pressed up against each other. so lucas wraps his giant cowboy body around maya’s tiny one and maya lets him. they don’t think about the first time they were on the subway together. but they kind of do. lucas knows maya pushed riley to him, he doesn’t understand why. even the second she came over to him, she lit up his entire world and everything else disappeared. she was glowing, he was drawn to her, like a magnet. he knew then, that he had to know her. he doesn’t know he didn’t fall in love with her right there. maybe he did.  
  
now he’s watching her draw, she’s still glowing, he’s still drawn to her, but it’s different now. she was so loud that day, she’s nearly silent now. her glow from that day has faded, lucas wants to know why. she was a fireball, heading in his direction, crashing into his life and lighting his whole world up in flames. he’ll never forget that day.  
  
maya is shading the trees when lucas notices two men across the sidewalk looking at her. lucas ignores it until he looks back a few minutes later and the men are still watching maya. lucas sneakily wraps his arm around maya in protectiveness. the guys get the picture and walk away.  
  
it’s a while later, maya has finished her piece and they're strolling around the park when lucas sees the guys again. he just pulls maya close to him and gives the men a look that could literally murder.  
  
“what are you doing, huckleberry?” maya asks as lucas holds her waist close to him.  
  
“um. you… almost stepped in gum.” he responds. good excuse, lucas.  
  
lucas is able to ignore the disgusting assholes until they start talking. “hey, baby!” they yell. maya knows it's at her, she looks towards the ground and keeps walking. “lemme see you smile! you’re beautiful, baby!” lucas tenses up, maya can feel it.  
  
maya grabs the back of his shirt, “lucas, don't.” she says lowly. lucas listens to her and relaxes slightly.  
  
lucas breathes, letting his anger start to subside, until the disgusting men start talk about maya’s ass. “okay, you can get them now.” maya lets go, and lucas is in front of them in a split second. maya watches from a distance.  
  
“walk. away.” lucas starts off, eerily calm.  
  
“or what.” one of the men talk back. this is lucas’s cue to grab both men by their shirts, one in each hand, and go all texas lucas.  
  
“i’m as strong as a fucking horse,” maya rolls her eyes, he would bring up the horse thing. “i don't even work at it. i just am. now, there’s two ways for this situation to end; you can either shut your gross mouth and walk the fuck away or i can knock your teeth out. your choice.” maya mentally begs the guys to choose the first. she really doesn't want lucas in jail.  
  
maya doesn’t understand how, but lucas, a 15 year old, managed to scare to grown men. the men push lucas off of them and walk away, but everyone can tell they were frazzled. lucas walks back over to maya, as if nothing happened. “all good?” maya asks.  
  
lucas looks down at the girl he would do anything for, and thinks as long as she's by his side, everything is “all good, partner.”  
  
they keep walking, but he continues to watch maya. it amazes him that this girl knows everything about him, knows his worst secret, yet chooses to be around him still. chooses to like him still. maya knows lucas hates his texas side, his angry side. maya knows lucas keeps it a secret because he thinks people will hate him for it. she knows he doesn't understand why she chooses to like him when she knows what he can do. maya also knows lucas doesn't understand that liking him isn't really a choice at all.

* * *

**16.** the week of august 16-20 is school orientation week. freshman go on the 16th. everyone goes separately with their parents. maya goes through the stupid line and gets her stupid picture taken and gets her stupid schedule and stupid locker assignment and  _ no  _ she doesn’t want a stupid parking pass because no one actually drives in new york city. she gives the school her medical information and there's only 16 days left of summer and it’s all getting too real. katy starts filling out a paper for parents and maya needs out. she’s about to bolt when a soft voice says her name.  
  
she turns and sees the only person she wants to be with right now, “lucas, hey.” she manages breathily.  
  
“hey, what’s going on?” he asks, as he walks her to an empty hallway.  
  
maya starts to ramble. “i can’t do this. i can’t do high school. i can’t go. i’m not going. i’m dropping out. i-”  
  
“maya.” lucas saying her name stops her in her tracks. “why are you saying this? what’s going on?” he says calmly. he lowers them so they’re sitting on a bench in the hall.  
  
“we’re not gonna survive high school. the clique six won’t. me and riley won’t, you and zay won’t, you and me…” she trails off. “by senior year we won’t even remember each other's names. you and zay will be kings, on the football team. riley will be in every single club she can find. smackle and farkle will be in all honors and AP. and i’ll still be struggling to pass, because apparently i suck that much.” lucas shakes his head. “i just… i don’t want to lose this.”  
  
he looks at her while she plays with her fingers. “maya. i don’t know how many times i have to tell you this,” maya scoffs. “but that will never happen. us six, we’re bound together now. high school won’t change that. and if the six of us aren’t together anymore, i promise you and i will always be.” now, because by now it’s basically his way of giving a fucking high five, takes maya’s face in his hands and has her meet his eyes. “you will never lose me. if nothing else, you will never lose me.”  
  
lucas doesn’t think he could lose her if he tried. he’d keep crawling back to her. he would literally follow her anywhere. around the block, across the country, to the ends of the earth. he doesn’t understand how she does the things she does to him. she’s addicting. he read somewhere that  when two people fall in  love the  body will release endorphins, which is like the body’s natural heroin, causing people to get addicted to love. he thinks it makes sense, he can't go longer than a week without seeing her.  
  
he looks into her blue eyes, and realises he’s in love.

* * *

**1.** lucas’s birthday is august 31st. he’s always hated it. always the day before school starts. in texas it was the day school started, that was even worse. this year he has a party, because it’s his 16th birthday and ms. friar trusts him. maya thinks about the way lucas looked at her at the last party they went to. ms. friar gave lucas the second set of keys to her car, even though he hasn’t gotten his license, and no one drives in new york.    
  
lucas is opening presents currently. zay and riley got him a joint present of a cowboy hat from texas, lucas gets homesick at times. smackle got him a silver keychain with a football charm, lucas wants to go out for the football team. farkle got him a  _ ton _ of his favourite hair gel, cause it’s expensive and farkle could afford it. maya got him nothing, because money was still tight and she hasn’t gotten allowance in months so her mom could afford rent. lucas just smiles at her knowingly and tells her privately that her being there is the best present he could have. maya rolls her eyes and calls him cheesy, but lucas has never been more serious.  
  
everyone leaves after they’ve had cake and done all birthday things. it’s 8pm and katy doesn’t get off work until 10, so maya stays with lucas until katy picks her up. lucas and maya go up to his room and maya knows she has to do this now. she’s waited all day and night and no one is around anymore. “um. so you know how i didn’t get you anything.” maya asks, nervously. she goes to sit next to lucas on his bed.  
  
“yeah. you don’t need to. i swear, i don’t even care about presents. you’re here. that’s all that matters to me.” he insists.  
  
“just shut up, huckleberry. let me do this.” she says. she’s still nervous, lucas can tell. he wraps an arm around her waist and holds her hip. he lets her talk. “i did. get you something. well, not get. i didn’t buy it. um. more like made it. uh-”  
  
lucas can tell she’s rambling now. “maya.” he stops her softly.  
  
“close your eyes.” she tells him. lucas questions her. “close your eyes!” she repeats. lucas does what she told him. maya pulls out his present, “put your hands out.” lucas follows command again. maya places the paper in his hands gently. she takes a deep breath and tells him he can open his eyes. lucas looks down and sees the drawing lucas asked for at the beginning of summer, his face golden and the sun setting. except instead of new york city behind him, it’s texas. a wide open plain instead of a crowded street. sand instead of hard cement littered with old gum. a farmhouse in the distance instead of mile high skyscrapers everywhere you look. a campfire instead of a dirty metal table where they ate their ice cream.  
  
lucas thinks his heart legitimately stops beating when he sees it. his throat closes up and he’s overcome with emotions. he turns the page over and sees maya’s writing.  
  
**thank you for being next to me at midnight. maya**  
  
he looks over at maya, she’s already looking back at him, her eyes wide. she’s looking at him with the softest and most scared look he’s ever seen. he starts to think about how they got here. from dating on the subway for a total of ten seconds, to dating for real for a total of ten minutes, to two points of a triangle. he thinks about riley, he loves riley, he does. but not in the way he loves maya.  
  
it was never riley. he’s been maya’s since the second they made eye contact on the grimy subway. but maya told him to like riley. so he did. he liked riley, he went on a date with her, he held hands with her. he would’ve done anything maya asked, he still would, and he did. the whole time he thought maya didn’t like him, thought she hated him, so he liked riley. but one night in texas changed everything. she changed everything. as if she hadn’t already done that before. suddenly his whole world was turned upside down on it’s axis and she liked him. all this time he hid his feelings because he knew she would never see him the way he sees her. now he has a shot with this fireball girl and he’s terrified. and he needs her closer to him so he grabs her face and he’s so close to kissing her, but there’s another girl buying farkle ice cream that he’s supposed to like and he’s so, so terrified.  
  
now he’s sitting next to the girl who completely terrifies him, and she’s looking at him like she’s gonna break and he’s in love with her. he’s so, so in love with her. if he didn’t know he was in love with her before, he sure does now. he’s never been so sure in his life. god, he doesn’t even know what to do with himself. “maya. this- this is so beautiful.” her eyes light up at his words. he’s not even just talking about her art. “you are the only person i would want to be standing next to at midnight.”  
  
maya looks down and laughs, “huckleberry-”  
  
“no. i’m serious. i was with you because i wanted to be.” he says, looking into the scared blue eyes across from him. he tells her with his eyes that he’s in love with her, he wants nothing more than to tell her for real, but he can’t. he knows if he did, their complicated situation would become scarily real and even more complicated. so he settles with telling her with his eyes. he can tell she understands when she gives a closed mouth smile. the way she looks back at him lets him know she feels the same way. they’re both absolutely terrified and completely and irrevocably in love with each other, and neither know how to handle it.

* * *

**0.** on september 1st, riley and maya walk into high school together. of course the first thing to come up in history is something about a triangle. and of course maya and lucas are reminded of the shitty, shitty situation they’re in.  
  
riley.maya.lucas. always stuck in the same place, never moving. forever three points of a triangle with never any lines to connect anyone.

**Author's Note:**

> the part where maya was freezing at the beach was actually me when i went to long beach
> 
> gmw tumblr: blndebeauty.tumblr.com


End file.
